Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar! party finished first Thursday in a closely watched mock election at Blich High School in Ramat Gan, the Israeli school whose student votes have acquired an outsized political reputation after anticipating two of the country’s most famous electoral upheavals.
Yashar! won 32.2% of the vote among 11th- and 12th-grade students, followed by former prime minister Naftali Bennett’s Beyachad with 22.4%. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud finished third with 15.5%.
Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit received 9.4%, while Yair Golan’s Democrats took 7.1%. Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu won 4.8% and Ofer Winter’s Amcha Israel 3.6%. The Reservists-Economic party received 2.8%, while Religious Zionism took 1.6%, leaving both below the electoral threshold in the school vote.
The mock election carries no statistical weight as a national poll, and most, if not all, of the students who participated will be too young to vote in Israel’s Oct. 27 election. Yet parties have traditionally treated the event as a high-profile campaign stop, sending senior politicians to address the students before ballots are cast.
This year was no exception. Eisenkot, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana and Constitution Committee chairman Simcha Rothman were among those who addressed students during the week. Bennett, Democrats No. 2 Naama Lazimi, Yisrael Beytenu No. 2 Rafi Ben Shitrit and Otzma Yehudit lawmaker Yitzhak Kroizer also appeared as part of the school’s election exercise.
Ben-Gvir and Amcha Israel No. 2 Yoseph Haddad were among the politicians appearing Thursday. The campaign was not without friction: cups were thrown toward Beyachad lawmaker Merav Ben Ari after she criticized Ben-Gvir.
Blich, considered a secular and liberal high school, also faced an online backlash after publishing comments by Rothman, with hundreds of responses criticizing both his invitation and the school’s decision to share his remarks.
The school that became an election legend
Blich has been staging mock elections for decades, with one held as early as 1969. Its reputation as a political “bellwether” was cemented in 1977, when its students anticipated the historic election that brought Likud to power, and again in 1992, when its vote pointed toward Yitzhak Rabin and Labor’s victory.
Its record is far from perfect, however, and the exercise is neither designed nor weighted to represent the Israeli electorate. Blich’s student body comes from Ramat Gan, a city that has leaned toward the center-left in recent elections, making the school vote more a political ritual than a scientific predictor of the national result.
Otzma Yehudit supporters
(Photo: Mickey Schmidt)
In Blich’s previous mock election, Yesh Atid finished first with 45%, followed by Likud at 24% and National Unity at 12%. In Ramat Gan itself in the previous national election, Yesh Atid received 31%, Likud 22% and National Unity 14%.
Yisrael Beytenu wins separate Lod school vote
Blich was not the only school holding an election exercise this week. Atid Madaim High School in Lod hosted representatives from eight parties before students cast their own ballots.
There, Yisrael Beytenu finished first with 23.5%, followed by Beyachad with 18.8% and Yashar! with 17.4%. The Democrats received 13.4%, while Likud took 11.4%.
School principal Geula Sati said the exercise was intended to turn classroom civics into direct engagement with the political process.
“Education for citizenship and democracy is not limited only to civics lessons in the classroom,” she said. “It must be translated into practice through familiarity with elected officials and their different positions. I am proud of the students for the involvement, curiosity and seriousness they showed during the day.”